High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - JT Realmuto Is Tired Of Watching The Braves Win The NL East | WIP Midday Show

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Phillies catcher JT Realmuto joins the WIP Midday Show to talk about his work in the biomechanics lab and the need to win the division in 2024. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back. Midday show. Hugh Douglas, Joe Giglio live from Clearwater at Philly's Spring Training. And joining us right now, Philly's catcher JT Realmuto. JT, how you doing, man? Doing good. Doing good. Just grinding through the dog days of spring training, ready to get the season started. You know, it's funny, JT, speaking of that, because I'm fascinated. You're going into your 11th season. What do you do to help keep your body as fresh, and how has your workout regimen changed as you've gotten older? A lot, actually, honestly. I've actually started working out more often as I've gotten older, just with less exercises in there.

So when I was younger, I always loved working out. It was something that I enjoyed doing. But I would kind of wait for my off days and then get like a nice, like an hour long, big lift in, like really work hard, uh, on my off days and not really work out at all during the days I played. Now I've kind of learned, um, to feel better throughout the whole season and just to be more consistent with my workouts. I just do it every single day. Right after the game, I'll go in and do three exercises. It's a lot shorter, but it's a lot more manageable, and it's easier for me to stay routine.

And I found that that just keeps my body fresh throughout the season. So, by the way, happy belated birthday, right, last week? Happy belated birthday. A couple days ago, yeah? 33? Don't remind me. All right. We'll leave the number out.

Come on, man. 33 is not old, dog. That's not old. In baseball years, I'm a dinosaur. And as a catcher, usually that would be so. Do you think about that? I mean, we talk about it all the time. You catch a lot.

I mean, you caught 130 the last two years. It seems like you want to do that again. Most catchers, they get to your age, and I won't say the number again, that either wanes or they don't play as well anymore. Do you think about it? Does that creep in, or do you just do your thing, and you don't worry about, hey, I'm getting older now? Yeah yeah I don't worry too much about it just because my body still feels good and to be honest with um the last couple years my body has felt better in August and September than

it was when I was 27 28 just because I'm learning myself and learning new routines and learning how to be more efficient and stay fresh for the whole season obviously father time's coming for coming for all of us, so it's going to slow down eventually. But I haven't felt that yet, so I don't think about it too much. I just keep going, keep trying to keep my body in the best position that it can be to be productive throughout the whole season. And that's kind of all I really focus on right now. You know that number that you said that we can't say. How long do you think, like in your mind, in the way that you feel right now, how many more good quality years do you think like in your mind in the way that you feel right now

how many more good quality years do you think that you have left um honestly I wouldn't put a number on it just because right now I feel like I'm my body's still in peak condition that it's ever been I feel as good as I've ever felt uh realistically like I want to play as long as I can and but I want to play as long as I can while still being productive. So once my production starts dipping, I'm not going to be a guy who's like, oh, I still got to play 140 games. It's not ego-driven. I just want to be there to help the team. And when I'm the best option behind the plate, I want to catch as many games as I can

to give my team a chance to win. And my goal is to do that as long as I can, but I don't necessarily have a number for it. I know you don't want to put a number on it, so I'm going to help you out a little bit. I'll put a number on it. So I'm feeling like just by talking to you and listening to what you're saying, five years, do you feel comfortable if I said five more years on your career? Does that sound something like that's doable for you? That's absolutely doable, yeah, for sure. sure okay so 40 is no thing for you then like to your 40 well to that number that you know that that that 40 number yeah that yeah that mystical number yeah i i can get there i i believe i can uh it doesn't mean i will but i'm gonna put i'm gonna do everything i can to to um be in the best

position to to play well and you know when i'm 40 years old. We're with JT Real Luther here at Fillory Spring Training. So JT, tell us about the biomechanics lab. We saw a story a couple weeks ago that you kind of went into the lab this offseason, and they try to help you maybe change your swing or tweak some things. What was that like? People hear that, they think, like, what is he doing? What did you change or what did you try to change with your swing this offseason? Yeah, the biomechanic word always gets people alarmed

and makes it seem like it's a lot more than what it was um basically essentially we got in there um what it does is give you numbers and and outputs that you can't necessarily you can feel in your swing but you can't necessarily see so like what was happening over time i i had gotten to some swing flaws where my weight was getting a little too far back in my load. So that would cause my leg lift to go a little higher just because I was so far back. I had to have more time to get to center, and that would just cause my timing to be late a lot. So what we did was we got on the force plates, and it showed me where all my pressure was coming from, where the power output was, to i was able to make adjustments

off of that just to get a little more centered in my load the swing still the same i'm a little wider which it's almost the exact same swing i had in 2018 so it's not necessarily anything crazy new it's just kind of getting back to where i was when i felt my best and that was a little more centered a little more grounded and able to use the forces of the ground more often i'm kind of curious about that because how how how many repetitions does it take for you to get comfortable with the kind of new mechanics that you have with your swing? It was a lot. Yeah. I mean, I started swinging almost two weeks after the season.

So it was the fastest I've ever gotten into the, to the cages in an off season, just because I knew I wanted to make some adjustments. I didn't feel good about my, my swing last year. So I don't know the number of swings, but it was three to four days a week every week early in the offseason. And as the offseason progressed, it was even more. You know, you said something about like starting earlier in the season. Was that kind of driven by what happened at the end of last season? You know, since we're using a lot of innuendos, is that kind of one of the reasons why we're using a lot of innuendos is is that

kind of one of the reasons why you got started a little bit early because you know the way the season ended kind of left a sour taste in your mouth oh uh certainly and for me it was it was honestly my whole season like i actually felt better in the postseason than i did in the regular season so like mine was driven just by how i felt i didn't feel like i was near as consistent as i could have been in the regular season because i had some swing flaws that were very fixable. But also, yes, the taste of the postseason and how things ended just gave me a little more drive to be like, hey, we've got to figure this out. We can't let this happen again.

Let's make ourselves the best we can for next year. So speaking of that, I mean, expectations are gigantic. I mean, I know you guys can't wait to get home. People are so excited for this team, for opening day next week. Do you guys talk about it? Like, you know, I was talking to Hugh earlier about his teams with the Eagles, you know, back in the day. They got close, right?

And then I always ask him, like, did you guys talk about winning this group bowl when you got close? Like, in spring training, I know we all know what the goal is. Do you guys talk about winning the World Series, or is it more of a day-by-day, let's just do our work, and it's kind of unspoken? What is it like for you guys when we all know what your goal is do you guys talk about winning the world series or is it more of a day by day let's just do our work and it's kind of unspoken what is it like for you guys when we we all know what your goal is no it's definitely not unspoken we talk about it all the time um i can just i mean there's multiple guys in the clubhouse who just this spring training be like man i can't wait to

win the world series like we'll talk about what it's going to be like when we win like we're trying to put that vision in everybody's mind that like we are going to win the World Series. We'll talk about what it's going to be like when we win. We're trying to put that vision in everybody's mind that we are going to win the World Series. We had the vision last year. It obviously didn't happen for us. But if we stay together, if we stay healthy, if we keep that mindset, everybody in this clubhouse truly believes we will win a World Series, and that's the ultimate goal.

So it's not some spooky monster in the corner that we don't want to talk about. We talk about it every day. It's our goal. It's what we put in our minds, and that we don't want to talk about. It's like we talk about it every day. It's our goal. It's what we put in our minds, and it's what we want to achieve. Let's talk about the first goal, though, that I'm sure is making the playoffs and winning the division. So the last two years, you guys have gone great runs without winning the division. Is winning the division a goal for you guys?

Obviously, you haven't needed to, right? You've gone through the Braves in the playoffs. But how about winning the division? Is that something you guys think about, talk about, focus on? Because it's been this weird thing where the division winners, like Atlanta, they've gotten knocked out early. You guys, as a wild card, have gotten further. Some people are like, well, they don't even need to win the division.

I want you guys to win the division. Is that a big goal? Of course. I'm tired of seeing the Braves win the division. Yeah, we all are, too. It's like every year, we're 10 games back, not even with a chance. So, that's absolutely our first goal is to win the division and kind of dethrone those guys because they've had such a good run at it and they've been such a good team in the regular season.

And we feel like we're every bit as good as them. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to compete with them and beat them for the division. We just have to, first of all, get off to a better start and then just be more consistent throughout the season. Clearly you can see it when we get in the postseason. We have all the talent in the world. We have the team that can win every single game of the regular season.

You're obviously never going to do that. But we just have to change our mindset in the regular season and be a little more consistent over the 162 and be that team that we are in the postseason for the whole year. Speaking of that, has there been conversation about getting off to a quicker start? Yeah. I mean, geez, I can't conversation about getting off to a quicker start? Yeah. I mean, geez, I can't go a day without the media asking me about it. I'm talking about with the team.

Yeah. It is a conversation for sure. And like I said, if we want a chance to win the division, we have to start better. We've gotten off to bad starts two years in a row and then obviously picked it up in the second half. But there's no reason we shouldn't be that team in the first half. The first couple of months, we just have to get a better start, get a little momentum on our side, and then we'll have a lot better chance of competing with the Braves for the division. But what about that? Well, see,

this is the thing that I was telling Joe about being the division winner, and I know that's a great goal to have, but that five days off, that's kind of hurt the Braves, in my opinion. How do you feel about that, having that rest period before the series starts in my opinion rest is i mean it's never a bad thing in baseball i think you get healthy um obviously you go a few days without at bats but we there's ways you can combat that by by scrimmaging facing your own arms stuff like that uh i would rather have the five days off and go straight to that division series than have to play a wild card series and take a chance to get knocked out um so yes our goal is to win the division we'd rather rather have those five days off than not. JT, obviously a lot of your work is what you do at the plate,

but a lot of what you do behind the plate as a catcher. Who stood out to you? Give us a couple names, pitchers that just you felt it, like their stuff is popping this spring training. Gosh, it's hard to not say Wheeler just because his stuff is always popping and he always looks really good. I've been really encouraged by Ranger this spring training. He's looked – I mean, his stuff has been – he's always had really good stuff,

but he's had really good command this spring, kind of the two-year-ago Ranger command that we saw, that he was just putting the ball right where he wants to. That's kind of how he's been this spring training. He's been exciting to watch. Alvarado's looked good. I think Sir Anthony's kind of taken a step forward again, and his slider looks like it's a little better than it was last year,

which I thought that was his biggest issue was the slider command and being able to get guys off of his fastball a little bit. And I've been encouraged to see the work he's done this offseason. You know, JT, I just got a little bit of piece of information. Found out you were a three-sport athlete. So if you weren't playing baseball, would you rather be an NFL quarterback or a champion Olympic wrestler? Probably an NFL quarterback because they make way more money than wrestlers do.

No, but, dude, you make – like baseball players make way more money than football players. Yeah, the quarterbacks do make a lot of money. I would definitely say quarterback. Baseball was always my love, the sport I loved the most growing up, but I've never had more fun than Friday Night Lights playing football. I mean, just looking back to this day, those were some of the most fun times I ever had was the adrenaline rush that you get before a football game.

It's just not – it doesn't compare to anything. So what kind of quarterback was JT Remlinger? Dual threat, runner, or more usually your arm? Pocket pass. No, I was kind of more dual threat. I was very raw as a quarterback. I didn't even start playing quarterback until my sophomore year, so I was more of an athlete than a quarterback. So I ran a lot, but I could throw it as well.

It was more dual threat than anything. I definitely wasn't a true pocket passer. What was your team growing up? I didn't necessarily have an NFL team because I grew up in Oklahoma and we didn't have one. I didn't want to root for the Cowboys just because everybody else did in Oklahoma. It seemed like you were destined for Philadelphia your whole life. Exactly.

All my friends rooted for Dallas Cowboys, but I never did. I was more of a college football fan. I was a big Oklahoma State Cowboys fan. That's where all my family kind of went to school, so I grew up going to their games and rooting for them a lot. We do appreciate JT Romuto with us here at Spring Training. We always love the audio.

We've played it forever. The 13-more topper, when you guys made the playoffs in 2022. Where did that come from? Was that just off the cuff? That really set the stage for that postseason and what you guys did in the last two Octobers. That was the moment i felt that this city is like man they're back the phillies right what was that like when you gave that little speech there with topper 13 more uh yeah it was a

pretty special moment i honestly it just kind of naturally happened after the after we clinched in tampa i walked up to him like and during the celebration i was like hey we got 13 more wins let's do this. It was just like a small conversation. I wasn't thinking anything of it. And he said, hey, I'm going to ask you in the celebration speech how many more wins we got, and you let the team know. And so it just happened then.

And then after every single series, he didn't even mention it again. He just kept asking, kept asking. And so it just kind of became this thing. And, yeah, it was pretty cool. I enjoyed being a part of that. Yeah, the countdown is awesome. JT, we appreciate you hopping on. Good luck this season, and we're all rooting for you,

and we're expecting big things from you. Thank you, JT. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. That was fun. JT Realmuto. And, Hugh, listen, everyone, listen to JT talk.